The AllMighty Secret Keeper
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and nineteen:  top 16; Sunshine Girls  Now that she knows Quinn's secret, all Rachel has are questions inside her head.


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 24th cycle. Now cycle 25!

_**It's cycle 25!**__ If you'll recall, back in cycle 10 I did my top 15 of favorite things (characters, ships, friends..) in Glee, with a ficlet for each of the numbers, and a chapter fic for number 1 (stories 190 to 210). Now this time around, in order to schedule in a friend's birthday, it's a top SIXTEEN, and the number one's six-chapter fic will be split in three blocks... (5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters) It's less confusing than it seems, I promise ;) Here we go!  
**Coming in at number six!**_

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**"The All-Mighty Secret Keeper"  
Rachel & Quinn  
****Sunshine Girls #25 (sequel to "Under the Same Sun") **

After Quinn's sister had returned, insisting to pay the two babysitters equally, Rachel had kindly declined her offer to stay for dinner. She could feel that for all the calm she had managed to maintain, it wasn't going to last… and she needed time to think on her own. She left the house and started heading home. It was a good thing some part of, subconscious or… whatever, was guiding her on her way, because her mind was… elsewhere, not thinking of travel.

As it was, her mind was simply… confused. It wasn't so much about the secret; that had been pretty straightforward… Quinn had been with Puck, and it was him who had fathered the baby growing inside her now… even though she had gone and declared that it had been Finn. This part, as far as basic facts, she got. It wasn't that part that bugged her somewhere, it was…

It was that she'd told her. They were growing closer now, with a solid foundation for 'Friendship 2.0,' so Rachel supposed it was just a matter of that, of Quinn trusting her enough now that she would open up about this thing, this dark spot that had been hanging over her blonde head… Rachel couldn't imagine that she would have had the chance to discuss this with many people, if anyone… So in that sense, in that capacity, Rachel was happy and proud to know she could provide that…

But then it was just a foundation, and if it had walls, then they weren't very high. And Rachel could still see the outside, the way things were before. Not so long ago, they were on opposite ends, and the thing in the middle, polarizing, was one very tall quarterback. She didn't want to think that way, not anymore, but this whole thing was so big, so what if… what if there was more to it? Paranoia and doubt wanted to claim her.

They whispered in her mind's ear… 'What if she's using you? What if she knows you won't betray her now, because you're too good, and this way she can make sure you won't go near Finn? What if she just wants to mess with you?' She didn't want to think it, any of it, but it was kind of hard not to. You spent enough time being one way, one thing, and when something massive and frightening came along, it felt like the place to be… like home.

Quinn had been manipulating her, and others, for a while. And it could be seen as just plain mean, mischievous, nasty… But Rachel, she knew better. She knew who Quinn Fabray was, and the way she manipulated, at the core, all of it was… self-preservation. She got scared, too, and then… things happened. She was clever though, so clever, and mixed with fear, that became the stuff of high school legend.

So there she was, pregnant, and scared, clinging on to Finn for stability. Only there she was, Rachel, and she wanted to hold on to Finn as well, for completely different reasons. A frightened clever mind might see this new trust as a way to shake off the extra weight, keep her white knight all to herself. And Rachel, she would just roll with the punches, was that it?

But then something like this might make a girl wonder if this so-called trust truly went both ways. The thought might come to be that it was only her who trusted Quinn and not the other way around, she…

Her autopilot stopped; she stopped, just right where she stood. And she said no.

Doubt… It felt like home, but then she'd always grown to reach beyond home, beyond herself… She was the one who stepped out, leading the charge. And she trusted Quinn Fabray because she trusted her back, she was her friend… completely.

The two of them, they'd been through too much, back when they were kids, now rebuilding what they'd lost, and everything in between… There was no one outside her fathers, her family, that she knew… better… for better or for worse. There was still the Finn issue, and she knew that wouldn't go away without a little pain, somewhere…

But their walls had grown, that day… fortified. Whatever happened, they would still have each other. If they changed, they changed. Quinn had entrusted her with a secret, the biggest one she had… What good would it do her to give Rachel the key to her destruction, if she expected to throw her off? If Rachel could recognize that, then she could be at peace… and so could Quinn. Her secret was safe.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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